[mobglob-discuss] FW: [workfare] Human Rights in 'The Land of the Free...'

[Graeme Bacque]

-----Original Message-----
From: worker-workfare-defeat at lists.tao.ca
[mailto:worker-workfare-defeat at lists.tao.ca]On Behalf Of John
Sent: Tuesday, February 04, 2003 2:16 AM
To: workfare-defeat at lists.tao.ca
Subject: [workfare] Human Rights in 'The Land of the Free...'


Right to Water (right-to-water at iatp.org) Posted: 02/03/2003 By 
droy at citizen.org
============================================================

Consumer Advocates Challenge Detroit Cut-Offs, Empower Local Residents
to Fight for Water Rights
U.S. Rep. Conyers Calls for Moratorium on Utility Cut-offs

DETROIT - Public Citizen is calling on the Detroit Water and Sewerage
Department (DWSD) to stop cutting off utility service to low-income
residents. The call comes as angry Detroit residents march today in
front of the department to protest the shutting off of tens of thousands
of people's water, heat and electricity. U.S. Rep. John Conyers
(D-Mich.) is scheduled to join the protesters at noon.

Today's protesters are demanding an emergency moratorium to end the
utility cut-offs and a new affordability plan to ensure poor people have
access to heat and water in the future. Public Citizen, a national,
nonprofit consumer advocacy organization, is urging the department to
provide affordable water rates from the municipal water company, which
has cut off more than 40,000 residents in the past year. Public Citizen
has organized a legal team, conducted research and is coordinating
groups in Detroit.

Michigan Legal Services, Legal Aid and Defenders, and the Michigan
Poverty Law Center make up the legal team, which is calling on the City
Council to implement an emergency 60-day moratorium on the water and
utility cut-offs.

"Immediate action must be taken to ensure the health and well-being of
Detroit residents who are being deprived of these basic services,"
Conyers said. "No citizen should have to endure what people are facing
day after day during the coldest winter months. It is critical to
impose a moratorium on the cut-offs. Human rights must come first."

Added Sara Grusky, a policy advocate with Public Citizen's Water for
All campaign, "Everybody deserves water and heat. The city should
address this inhumane situation. Water is a basic human right, essential
to life, and must be treated as such whether you are rich or poor." The
Water for All campaign works with groups around the world to fight water
privatization and defend clean and affordable water as a human right.

Senior citizens, people with disabilities, women with young children,
and ex-welfare recipients are the most common victims of the cut-offs.
"The average salary of welfare recipients is less than $7.50 an hour,"
said Maureen Taylor, director of the Michigan Welfare Rights
Organization. "You can be working full-time and you're still poor. I
get 20 to 30 calls a day from seniors, women and single men, and from
those disabled physically and emotionally whose utilities are being shut
off." Taylor's group has done research revealing that Detroit is not
alone and that many other towns in Wayne County are experiencing similar
problems.

Victor Mercado, the new director of the DWSD, spent years working for
the major corporate water companies Thames and United Water. With a
hard-line, pro-business approach, Mercado runs the DWSD like a
profit-making corporation at the expense of poor residents, Grusky said.

In 2001, Mercado introduced an aggressive plan of debt collection with
subsequent disconnection of services if residents are unable to pay the
charges. According to Michigan Citizen News Service, the plan includes
DWSD workers cementing areas around the shut-off valves to prevent
residents from turning their water back on.

Many speculate that after years of starving city services and
infrastructure, the goal is to improve DWSD's revenue stream just enough
to place it on the auction block for a corporate takeover. Detroit
water rates rose 9 percent in 2002.

According to the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization, 9,800 Detroit
residents lacked gas and electricity as of Aug. 1, 2002. Another 20,000
residents were on probation and threatened with cut-offs. According to
DWSD, between July 1, 2001, and June 30, 2002, the utility cut off water
to 40,752 residences in the Detroit area. As of Jan. 13, the DWSD
reported that it had cut off water service to 4,523 residences over the
past 79 business days.

Today's march is the sixth in a series of protests called by Michigan
Welfare Rights and held at the offices of DTE Energy and DWSD.

###
Public Citizen is a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization based in
Washington, D.C. For more information, please visit www.citizen.org.


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